The governing All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday waded into the budget padding scandal rocking the House of Representatives by summoning the lawmaker in the eye of the storm, Abdulmumin Jibrin, a former chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation and member of the party.
Mr. Jibrin is to appear before a disciplinary committee at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja not later than Tuesday (today) afternoon.
The governing party, in a letter it dispatched to the Kano federal lawmaker, explained that it resorted to summoning him via a letter after all attempts to reach him by telephone calls and text messages were unsuccessful.
In the letter, dated August 1, 2016, and signed by the party’s Deputy National Chairman for the Northern Zone, Lawal Shuaibu, the APC cautioned Mr. Jibrin over his media campaign against the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, and other principal officers over an allegation of budget padding.
“To say the least, it is absolutely unacceptable to resort to media war as a means of settling scores without recourse to and/or exhausting the party’s internal dispute resolution mechanism”, the party said.
The APC appears to have found its voice after its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Timi Frank, chastised the party’s leadership for failing to call Jibrin to order and resolve the dispute between him and Speaker Dogara.
Mr. Jibrin was removed as chairman of the Appropriation Committee in controversial circumstances on July 20 on allegations of betrayal of trust.
He denied the allegation and launched a vicious campaign in the media against Mr. Dogara; his deputy, Yussuf Lasun; House Whip, Alhassan Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, calling for their removed from office. (Mr. Ogor is the only non-APC member of the quartet).
On Monday, Mr. Jibrin formally visited the Independent Corrupt Practices and related offences Commission, ICPC, Department of State Services, DSS, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, where he submitted petitions against the aforementioned principal officers and some other lawmakers.
However, the APC, in the letter to its member, said decried the steps he took, stressing that it underscored a blatant disregard for party supremacy and its existing internal dispute resolution mechanism, adding that it would work to ensure that it instilled discipline on all members.
“As a disciplined party, the constitution of our party has made adequate provisions on ways of resolving any issue among our members”, Mr. Shuaibu said. “It behoves on the party to take all necessary steps in order to ensure that no member of the Family brings dishonour to the party”.
The APC, therefore, reiterated its notice for Mr. Jibrin to appear before the party today, “urging” him to “be guided accordingly” as he digested the content of the letter.
“You are, therefore, by this invitation, expected to appear before the undersigned at the APC National Secretariat on Tuesday, 2nd August, 2016, at 2 p.m. Kindly note that failure to and/or refusal to honour this invitation will amount to a decision you have made not to submit to the party”.
